Terry McAuliffe needs a little more time to think about the EPA’s new coal regs, if you don’t mind

posted at 7:21 pm on September 20, 2013 by Erika Johnsen

The Obama administration moved forward with much-anticipated emissions regulations on Friday, requiring any new coal plants to cut down on their emissions levels to a degree that will necessitate expensive carbon capture and storage technology — which just so happens to be so prohibitively costly that there are no commercial coal-fired plants actually using it right now. (This round of regulations is really just the warmup act, by the way, for the regulations the Obama administration hopes to introduce next year requiring new and existing coal plants to meet their selected standards — meaning current plants will either need to aggressively retrofit their operations or call it quits.) Via the AP:

Linking global warming to public health, disease and extreme weather, the Obama administration pressed ahead Friday with tough requirements to limit carbon pollution from new power plants, despite protests from industry and from Republicans that it would mean a dim future for coal.

The proposal, which sets the first national limits on heat-trapping pollution from future power plants, would help reshape where Americans get electricity, moving from a coal-dependent past into a future fired by cleaner sources of energy. It’s also a key step in President Barack Obama’s global warming plans, because it would help end what he called “the limitless dumping of carbon pollution” from power plants.

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy said in a speech Friday morning to announce the proposal that, rather than damage an industry, the proposed regulations would help the industry to grow.

Yeah, try telling that to the coal industry, which is in an almighty uproar over their line of work getting picked to be the sacrificial lamb on the altar of President Obama’s climate-change agenda.

In Virginia, however, the national party leader’s domestic agenda is making rather an uncomfortable situation for the Democrat running for governor. National Journal explains:

The state’s southwest is coal-mining country, and many Virginians rely on coal plants to keep the lights on. While Democrats in other coal states have distanced themselves from the Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement, so far McAuliffe has been mostly keeping quiet. Don’t be fooled though. As National Journal‘s Coral Davenport reported, this is an extremely important if uncomfortable time for the Old Dominion Democrat. …

Cuccinelli has been quick to pounce on the tension in McAuliffe’s position. “I find it remarkable and irresponsible that during a time of prolonged economic uncertainty, the president of the United States is proposing a policy that will crush Virginia jobs and hike energy prices for businesses, families, and workers,” Cuccinelli wrote in a statement moments after Obama’s new regulations were announced. “The needs of our job creators and families are much more important than special-interest groups and radical environmentalists. It’s disappointing that the president and Terry McAuliffe either don’t understand that or don’t seem to care.”

While plenty of the more moderate, purplish voters of Virginia are vaguely fine with President Obama’s climate-change agenda and Cuccinelli may have some vulnerabilities there too, the state is home to some major energy interests. That means that McAuliffe is going to have to walk a fine line on his penchant for flip-flopping on the issue — especially given that the race’s momentum seems to be on Cuccinelli’s side right now.

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I also can’t wait to hear what Bobby Casey has to say about these new rules. Despite the fracking boom, western Pennsylvania still produces a lot of coal and most of the power in the Philadelphia area comes from coal-fired plants. Pat Toomey ought to be able to make some good commercials on this as well.

At what point will the eagle eye media go Sarah Palin on McAuliffe for his total lack of knowledge on the major (and in Palins’ case the minor and even obscure) issues? I mean, I’d like to know what newspapers he reads, if any.

The groups that own coal plants should cash in their chips and close the doors tomorrow.The fight is over unless they spend millions fighting it in court or upgrading.Make their senators and congressmen do something for a change.Shut the power off and give everyone a taste of what’s coming.See who screams the loudest.

It shows how little understanding of actual science there is in the government.

backwoods conservative on September 20, 2013 at 7:28 PM

I expect that decades from now the proggies will still be clinging to their global warming conjob. It’s all they have to push socialism in the energy business and it’s an enormous source of both pork and tribute.

I expect that decades from now the proggies will still be clinging to their global warming conjob. It’s all they have to push socialism in the energy business and it’s an enormous source of both pork and tribute.

slickwillie2001 on September 20, 2013 at 7:50 PM

A few have already jumped back on the new global ice age bandwagon.
They’ll just keep jumping back and forth between bandwagons of whatever impending (man-made) catastrophe they can manufacture from the latest data.

There’s a lot of blue government OBAMA dependents in populous Northern Virginia who don’t care how much their energy costs going up. They are making plenty of ‘feeding at the trough’ moolah, and don’t worry much about the workers in the rest of the state…and neither does Terry.

The latest McAuliffe ad presents an obstetrician who declares that Mr. Cuccinelli would “make all abortion illegal.”

Really? Cuccinelli, as Governor of Virginia, would have the ability to unilaterally overrule the long-established federal precedent of Roe v. Wade? Impressive. I wonder what other magical powers he’ll have.

Nothing like outright lying to push your POS candidate, eh Dims?

I hope this FFT PAC has some serious money behind it. McAuliffe is as dirty as they come, and Virginia deserves better.

Do people have any concept of the fact that the US gets fully FORTY PERCENT of its electricity from coal. There literally IS NO REPLACING that. Period. You cannot build enough solar farms or wind turbines to produce that kind of power. At least not in my lifetime. Nevermind that another 20% – nuclear – is aging quickly. I don’t even think you could replace the 40% from coal with natural gas without straining the supply and forcing prices higher.

I’ll bet he decides to come out on the I’m for clean air and water side. This is their fall back final red line position for all things agw, just like getting health care for 30M uninsured Americans is the red line for ocare.

Another problem with the new source performance standards for “new” coal fired plants is that when existing plant are substantially modified, they are interpreted as having to meet new source performance standards. Thus, you could see a situation where existing plants that need substantial overhaul have to in effect shut down because the new source performance standard is actually unachieveable economically. So, the owner instead of doing the substantial overhaul needed either does band-aids that impact reliability and safety or they shut the whole thing down before it time.

Partly OT, but just saw on Fox that T. Boone Pickens has dropped off the richest 400 list, from a billionaire to a millionaire, due to his losses in the wind energy business. Being green bit him in the backside, really hard. Heh.